Police: Random racist violence ends in death of black man

NEW YORK - One was a neighborly black man who lived in a rooming house in New York’s Garment District, liked to collect autographs outside Broadway’s theaters, struck up a Twitter friendship with a Hollywood actress, and took photos of himself with Oprah Winfrey and Beyonce.

The other was a white Army veteran from outside Baltimore who was raised in what was described as a churchgoing, liberal family and served in Afghanistan.

Late Monday night, officials say, their paths crossed tragically on the streets of New York in a cold-blooded random act of racist violence by the white man.

As 66-year-old Timothy Caughman bent over a trash bin around the corner from his home, gathering bottles to recycle, James Harris Jackson attacked him from behind with a 2-foot sword and walked off, prosecutors say. A bleeding Caughman staggered into a police station and later died at a hospital.

On Thursday, Jackson, 28, was charged with murder as a hate crime. He said nothing in court.

“The defendant was motivated purely by hatred,” said Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi, who added that the charges could be upgraded, “as this was an act most likely of terrorism.”

Prosecutors said Jackson hated black men, especially those who dated white women.

He came to New York last week to make a splash in the media capital of the world by killing as many black men as possible, authorities said. He saw Caughman on the street and thought he would make good practice for a larger attack in Times Square, they said. But Caughman wound up the only victim.

After seeing his picture in the news, Jackson turned himself in at a police station. He was armed with two knives and told officers he had tossed the sword in a trash bin in Washington Square Park, officials said. It was later recovered.

Investigators said they were trying to determine exactly what drove Jackson to violence. They planned to search his laptop and phone and interviewed friends and family.

His attorney, Sam Talkin, said if the allegations are anywhere close to being true, “then we’re going to address the obvious psychological issues that are present in this case.”